Are you meeting your fitness goals? Be patient with yourself as you build an active, healthy lifestyle you can live with… for good. Some tips:

• Stay consistent. There will be times you don’t feel like exercising, but by being active daily (aside from a day a week for rest and recovery), you train your body to expect it. Eventually, you’ll count on physical activity to help you feel your best and look forward to moving more at every opportunity.

• Reward yourself. Choose rewards in keeping with your new lifestyle to acknowledge, for example, exercising for 5 days in a row or meeting a specific milestone.

• Be realistic. When it comes to your health, it isn’t all or nothing; any exercise is better than no exercise. Do your best to be active daily, but if you have an off day — accept it, figure out what happened, take action to prevent further lapses, and move forward.

• Recommit. After you’ve been working out for a while, revisit your personal reasons for increasing physical activity; reflect on how you feel now that you’ve made exercise a regular part of your routine. Recognize the payoffs from your efforts and give yourself a high five as you continue progressing toward your goals.